About a week ago or so, Emma was surprised to notice that Google Maps is incapable of calculating a route from Manchester to Buxton. It works if you type in a place within Buxton, and also if you choose to calculate a walking route.

Next, looking at the live traffic on Google Maps, I noticed the region of slow traffic seemed to be concentrated in a band across the middle of the country. When I checked the weather map on the BBC, it looked like this is where all the snow has been.

 

Click on the thumbnail to view the image

There appear to be some strange place names in Shropshire. I noticed these while checking the route to Ironbridge.

I hope there really aren't towns called Dummy2643 and Dummy2792.

Measuring cups and their volume, along with the equivalent weights - these are only applicable for general purpose white flour or granulated sugar.

Cups	ml	Oz	Grams
1	236	4	110
½	118	2	55
1/3	79	1½	40
¼	59	1	30

Other conversions

These may be found in various American recipes.

• 1 cup is 8 fluid ounces of liquid or solid
• 1 stick of butter is the same as 1 cup (i.e. 4oz or 110g)

Gas Mark	° C	° F
¼	110	225
½	130	250
1	140	275
2	150	300
3	170	325
4	180	350
5	190	375
6	200	400
7	220	425
8	230	450
9	240	475

Not quite the War of the Roses but a not-too-serious comparison between Yorkshire and Lancashire . In the interest of fairness I am taking the pre-1970's county boundaries, so I'll include Liverpool and Manchester as 'Old' Lancashire . As little research as possible has been conducted, only simple fact-checking to make sure I haven't mis-remembered anything important.

	Yorkshire	Lancashire	Result
Countryside	James Herriot Country	Dark Satanic Mills	Yorkshire
Food	Yorkshire Pudding Pontefract Cake Wensleydale Cheese	Black Pudding Eccles Cake Lancashire Cheese	Draw
Beer	Theakstons Tetley Stones Sam Smiths	Thwaites Cains Boddingtons J W Lees Joseph Holt	Draw
Ye Olde stuff	York (except Jorvik which is a rip-off)	Err... some old buildings scattered around	Yorkshire
Fun	Scarborough	Blackpool	Lancashire
Big Cities	Leeds Bradford Sheffield	Manchester Liverpool	Lancashire
Films	American Werewolf in London The Full Monty Kes	28 days later The Parole Officer	Yorkshire (but it was close)
TV Comedy	Open All Hours Last of the Summer Wine	Royal Family Phoenix Nights	Lancashire

It's a dead heat so far so I'll get Google to decide the winner.

Google search for	Yorkshire	Lancashire	Result
"... is Great"	358	7	Yorkshire
"... is Crap"	2	0	Lancashire
"... is better than ..."	13	3	Yorkshire

It was close but it looks like Yorkshire wins on penalties.

Today is also Garfield's birthday. He's a bit younger than me (he was 'born' in 1978).

British Prime Ministers, 1721-2006

Year Elected	Name	Party
1721	Sir Robert Walpole	Whig
1742	Earl of Wilmington	Whig
1743	Henry Pelham	Whig
1754	Duke of Newcastle	Whig
1756	Duke of Devonshire	Whig
1757	Duke of Newcastle	Whig
1762	Earl of Bute	Tory
1763	George Grenville	Whig
1765	Marquess of Rockingham	Whig
1766	Earl of Chatham	Whig
1767	Duke of Grafton	Whig
1770	Lord North	Tory
1782	Earl of Shelburne	Whig
1782	Marquess of Rockingham	Whig
1783	William Pitt	Tory
1783	Duke of Portland	Tory
1801	Henry Addington	Tory
1804	William Pitt	Tory
1806	Lord Grenville	Whig
1807	Duke of Portland	Tory
1809	Spencer Perceval	Tory
1812	Earl of Liverpool	Tory
1827	Viscount Goderich	Tory
1827	George Canning	Tory
1828	Duke of Wellington	Tory
1830	Earl Grey	Whig
1834	Sir Robert Peel	Tory
1834	Duke of Wellington	Tory
1834	Viscount Melbourne	Whig
1835	Viscount Melbourne	Whig
1841	Sir Robert Peel	Tory
1846	Lord John Russell	Whig
1852	Earl of Aberdeen	Conservative
1852	Earl of Derby	Conservative
1855	Viscount Palmerston	Liberal
1858	Viscount Palmerston	Liberal
1858	Earl of Derby	Conservative
1865	Earl Russell	Liberal
1866	Earl of Derby	Conservative
1868	William Ewart Gladstone	Liberal
1868	Benjamin Disraeli	Conservative
1874	Benjamin Disraeli	Conservative
1880	William Ewart Gladstone	Liberal
1885	Marquess of Salisbury	Conservative
1886	Marquess of Salisbury	Conservative
1886	William Ewart Gladstone	Liberal
1892	William Ewart Gladstone	Liberal
1894	Earl of Rosebery	Liberal
1895	Marquess of Salisbury	Conservative
1902	Arthur Balfour	Conservative
1905	Henry Campbell-Bannerman	Liberal
1908	Herbert H. Asquith	Liberal
1916	David Lloyd George	Liberal
1922	Andrew Bonar Law	Conservative
1923	Stanley Baldwin	Conservative
1924	Stanley Baldwin	Conservative
1924	James Ramsay MacDonald	Labour
1929	James Ramsay MacDonald	Labour
1931	James Ramsay MacDonald	National Labour
1935	Stanley Baldwin	Conservative
1937	Neville Chamberlain	Conservative
1940	Winston Churchill	Conservative
1945	Clement Attlee	Labour
1951	Winston Churchill	Conservative
1955	Sir Anthony Eden	Conservative
1957	Harold Macmillan	Conservative
1963	Sir Alec Douglas-Home	Conservative
1964	Harold Wilson	Labour
1970	Edward Heath	Conservative
1974	Harold Wilson	Labour
1976	James Callaghan	Labour
1979	Margaret Thatcher	Conservative
1990	John Major	Conservative
1997	Tony Blair	Labour
2007	Gordon Brown	Labour

Presidents of the USA from 1789 to present.

President		Party	Term as President	Vice-President
1	George Washington (1732-1799)	None, Federalist	1789-1797	John Adams
2	John Adams (1735-1826)	Federalist	1797-1801	Thomas Jefferson
3	Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)	Democratic-Republican	1801-1809	Aaron Burr, George Clinton
4	James Madison (1751-1836)	Democratic-Republican	1809-1817	George Clinton, Elbridge Gerry
5	James Monroe (1758-1831)	Democratic-Republican	1817-1825	Daniel Tompkins
6	John Quincy Adams (1767-1848)	Democratic-Republican	1825-1829	John Calhoun
7	Andrew Jackson (1767-1845)	Democrat	1829-1837	John Calhoun, Martin van Buren
8	Martin van Buren (1782-1862)	Democrat	1837-1841	Richard Johnson
9	William H. Harrison (1773-1841)	Whig	1841	John Tyler
10	John Tyler (1790-1862)	Whig	1841-1845
11	James K. Polk (1795-1849)	Democrat	1845-1849	George Dallas
12	Zachary Taylor (1784-1850)	Whig	1849-1850	Millard Fillmore
13	Millard Fillmore (1800-1874)	Whig	1850-1853
14	Franklin Pierce (1804-1869)	Democrat	1853-1857	William King
15	James Buchanan (1791-1868)	Democrat	1857-1861	John Breckinridge
16	Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)	Republican	1861-1865	Hannibal Hamlin, Andrew Johnson
17	Andrew Johnson (1808-1875)	National Union	1865-1869
18	Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885)	Republican	1869-1877	Schuyler Colfax
19	Rutherford Hayes (1822-1893)	Republican	1877-1881	William Wheeler
20	James Garfield (1831-1881)	Republican	1881	Chester Arthur
21	Chester Arthur (1829-1886)	Republican	1881-1885
22	Grover Cleveland (1837-1908)	Democrat	1885-1889	Thomas Hendriks
23	Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901)	Republican	1889-1893	Levi Morton
24	Grover Cleveland (1837-1908)	Democrat	1893-1897	Adlai Stevenson
25	William McKinley (1843-1901)	Republican	1897-1901	Garret Hobart, Theodore Roosevelt
26	Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)	Republican	1901-1909	Charles Fairbanks
27	William Taft (1857-1930)	Republican	1909-1913	James Sherman
28	Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924)	Democrat	1913-1921	Thomas Marshall
29	Warren Harding (1865-1923)	Republican	1921-1923	Calvin Coolidge
30	Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933)	Republican	1923-1929	Charles Dawes
31	Herbert C. Hoover (1874-1964)	Republican	1929-1933	Charles Curtis
32	Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945)	Democrat	1933-1945	John Garner, Henry Wallace, Harry S. Truman
33	Harry S Truman (1884-1972)	Democrat	1945-1953	Alben Barkley
34	Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969)	Republican	1953-1961	Richard Milhous Nixon
35	John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963)	Democrat	1961-1963	Lyndon Johnson
36	Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-1973)	Democrat	1963-1969	Hubert Humphrey
37	Richard Milhous Nixon (1913-1994)	Republican	1969-1974	Spiro Agnew, Gerald R. Ford
38	Gerald R. Ford (1913- )	Republican	1974-1977	Nelson Rockefeller
39	James (Jimmy) Earl Carter, Jr. (1924- )	Democrat	1977-1981	Walter Mondale
40	Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911- 2004)	Republican	1981-1989	George H. W. Bush
41	George H. W. Bush (1924- )	Republican	1989-1993	James Danforth (Dan) Quayle
42	William (Bill) Jefferson Clinton (1946- )	Democrat	1993-2001	Al Gore
43	George W. Bush (1946- )	Republican	2001-	Richard Cheney

When Eleanor of Castile (wife of Edward I) died near Lincoln in 1290, her body was taken back to Westminster. At each overnight stop, Edward ordered a cross to be erected:

1. Harby, Nottinghamshire (near Lincoln)
2. Grantham, Lincolnshire
3. Stamford, Lincolnshire
4. Geddington, Northamptonshire (near Kettering)
5. Hardingstone, near Northampton
6. Stony Stratford (near Milton Keynes)
7. Woburn, Bedfordshire
8. Dunstable, Bedfordshire
9. St Albans, Hertfordshire
10. Waltham (now Waltham Cross) near Cheshunt in Hertfordshire
11. Westcheap (Cheapside), London
12. Charing (now Charing Cross)

To repeat the journey today by car would take a little over 5 hours, travelling 170 miles (avoiding motorways). The route would be:

1. Leave Harby and head west to the A1133 then south to the A1
2. Leave the A1 to visit Grantham
3. Back onto the A1 to Stamford. Leave town on the A43 towards Corby and Kettering.
4. The A43 goes through Geddington. Continue towards Northampton where it joins the A45.
5. South of Northampton, take a detour up the A508 to the cross.
6. Turn around and continue down the A508 to where it meets the A5 at Stony Stratford.
7. Follow the A5 south (either the modern one through Milton Keynes or the old Watling street) before turning off for Woburn.
8. Take the A4012 south to the A5 and on to Dunstable.
9. Continue south on the A5 then A5183 towards St Albans.
10. For the next leg of the journey you can either cheat and take the M25 to Junction 25 or go cross country taking the A414, A1M, B157 and finally B198 to Waltham Cross
11. Take the A1055 and A10 into London towards Cheapside
12. From there, the A40 then A4 take you to Charing Cross

I've missed out a lot of the finer detail of the route for clarity.

The only crosses still standing are the ones at Geddington, Hardingstone and Waltham Cross. The famous cross at Charing is a more modern replica.

There are lots of version of the Magpie Counting rhymes. This one seems fairly typical:

One for sorrow, two for joy,
Three for a girl, four for a boy,
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told.